The Odyssey main backdrop
The Odyssey main poster

The Odyssey

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6.7/10 • 415

2016-10-122h 2m

AdventureDrama

The aquatic adventure of the highly influential and fearlessly ambitious pioneer, innovator, filmmaker, researcher, and conservationist, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, covers roughly thirty years of an inarguably rich in achievements life.

Directors
Jérôme Salle
Writters
Laurent Turner, Jérôme Salle

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Lambert Wilson

    Lambert Wilson

    Jacques-Yves Cousteau

  2. Pierre Niney

    Pierre Niney

    Philippe Cousteau

  3. Audrey Tautou

    Audrey Tautou

    Simone Melchior Cousteau

  4. Laurent Lucas

    Laurent Lucas

    Philippe Tailliez

  5. Benjamin Lavernhe

    Benjamin Lavernhe

    Jean-Michel Cousteau

  6. Vincent Heneine

    Vincent Heneine

    Albert 'Bébert' Falco

  7. Thibault de Montalembert

    Thibault de Montalembert

    Etienne Deshaies

  8. Roger Van Hool

    Roger Van Hool

    Daniel Cousteau dit Daddy

  9. Chloe Hirschman

    Chloe Hirschman

    Jan Cousteau

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

May 15, 2024

6/10

Lambert Wilson is the innovative underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau in this rather unremarkable depiction of his life and career. He is married to Simone (Audrey Tautou) but has a bit of a wandering eye so they become maritally estranged, even though they continue to live and workout on their converted WWII minesweeper "Calypso". Needless to say, this puts some strain on the rest of the family, not least upon his relationship with his publicity magnet, heart-throb, eldest Philippe (Pierre Niney). The latter man's character is used as a barometer a little here to measure the actions of his father. The exploration activities must face stark realities. Money is needed to buy the 1½ tons of fuel the ship needs each trip, and that's before wages and other costs associated with their more scientific endeavours have to be paid. This leads to Cousteau becoming more of a businessman with almost corporate responsibilities. It's those activities that see a split between father and son that lasts until a trip to the Antarctic that sees a well documented tragedy hit the family. For the most part this is a soap opera of a film with nowhere near enough focus on what made the man famous in the first place. There is some underwater photography to liven things up, and a sequence with an expanding group of sharks that's quite menacingly filmed, but there's not really enough of that to compensate for the listless melodrama that's played out. The camera does love Niney and Tautou, and Wilson is competent enough in what is essentially a light-weight and slightly adulatory tale of a man who was clearly much more interesting, flawed and charismatic than we see here.

Media

  • The Odyssey poster
  • The Odyssey poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
French
Budget
$20,000,000.00
Revenue
$9,722,918.00
Keywords
based on novel or bookbiographyenvironmental activistunfaithful husbandsinging around campfirefrenchman abroadsinging on a boat